2015 Global Orchestra

Thousands play along with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra forming The Global Orchestra, to play the “Concert for the Planet”

The Global Orchestra was founded in 2013 with the idea of combining technology and creativity - for the planet’s sake. In March 2014, during Earth Hour, the first Concert for the Planet was staged. An ensemble orchestra played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons - at the Balmain Town Hall, to a rapt, enthusiastic audience.

During Earth Hour 2015, The Global Orchestra Foundation staged a huge, collaborative music project. At the stroke of 8.30pm, when lights were switched off all over the city, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra began playing the Concert for the Planet … this time, a mass-participation, multi-location performance of Holst’s The Planets. More than 200 schools, community groups and orchestras across 350 locations joined in, enabled by technology, … playing the same piece of music at the same time.

As the SSO performed Holst’s popular work The Planets at the Sydney Opera House at 8.30pm on 28 March, groups of musicians around the world came together to play along to a live web-stream of the concert, joining the SSO and the Global Orchestra Foundation in creating a soundtrack to Earth Hour.

Thousands of people gathered with their instruments to play along or just to listen at hundreds of satellite events in Australia – held at music schools, community centres, parks, private homes and primary and high schools – to play along to the live web-stream of the concert. A separate stream of David Robertson conducting – the “Conductor Cam” – guided players through the bar numbers and assisted them in following the score.

The web-streams were hosted on youtube and www.globalorchestra.com, allowing virtually anyone in the world to be part of this “global orchestra”.

In 2017, The Global Orchestra invited a robot to join the musicians onstage.

A performance of Charlie Chan’s composition, Paradise, was played in the Sydney Opera House, by a 40 member jazz ensemble. It featured Baxter the Robot on Marimba using artificial intelligence to play along.

In 2018, the Global Orchestra will form once again in an inspiring demonstration of human creativity and our ability to work together in harmony.

Along with conductor-cam, we’ll also stream live, multi camera coverage of the Orchestra’s performance. As well as Live crosses to feature satellite events and locations. In 2016, we even crossed live to a group at NASA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where a group of rocket scientists played along. They’ll be joining us again in 2018.

In the spirit of Earth Hour, as humanity takes pause to listen to our planets needs, the vision of the Global Orchestra is to have music become the inspiration and the agent for change. With the combination of individual preparation, careful listening and coming together to work in harmony, we can not only play a Symphony of music, we can find a better way for humanity to live, to ensure the sustainable future of our planet. This planet. PLANET EARTH.